Amanda Cohen

DIRT CANDY
New york city, usa

Amanda Cohen is the James Beard-nominated chef and owner of Dirt Candy, the  award-winning vegetable restaurant on New York City's Lower East Side.  She is also one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef Canada alongside Susur Lee, Lynn Crawford, Rob Feenie, and Hugh Acheson.

Dirt Candy was the first vegetable-focused restaurant in the city and is a pioneer of the vegetable-forward movement. It’s included in Paul Freedman’s Ten Restaurants That Changed America as “Ten Restaurants Changing America Now” alongside Momofuku and Eleven Madison Park. Dirt Candy’s original location only had 18 seats and was open for seven years, during which  time it became the first vegetarian restaurant in 17 years to receive two stars from the New York Times, was recognized by the Michelin Guide five years in a row, and won awards from Gourmet Magazine, the Village Voice, and many others.

Its new location opened in January, 2015 and was the first restaurant in the city to eliminate tipping and share profits with its employees. Her comic book cookbook, Dirt Candy: A Cookbook, is the first graphic novel cookbook to be published in North America. It's currently in its seventh  printing. She is also a co-founder of the Independent Restaurant Coalition.